1989 Austin Metro 1.0L Goofy's adventure

So we get there and we are greeted by a cheeky lil metro on the drive, filthy, with a dent in the bonnet and bent rad as a result, but only 21000 miles on the clock and solid as a rock. A full set of alloys in the boot and it starts on the button.

Absolutely delighted I hand over my cash and make my way to the nearest petrol station as its on dregs.

When we get there, a good look round finds us the standard airbox in the boot so my hubby Phil swaps the k&n for it as we weren't sure if the carb needle had been changed as it looked like it had just been thrown on.



Then for a nice bath before we fill up.



A few people on my face book really fretted about the car wash brush but the paint is shot, covered in lacquer peel and sun fade, I could have washed it with a brillo pad and you wouldn't have noticed!

We didn't make it too far before the first mishap (it was advertised spares or repairs so we had brought tools and fluids).
I was finding that anything over 40mph and the car was getting mega hot.
It had coolant but clearly the cooling system needed some love, the rad was badly bent and the car hadn't done much in the last few years according to the MOT history. There wasn't too much we could do about that at the side of the road.
Executive decision was, rather than call breakdown, we'd drive the rest of the way home on the back roads and stick to 40mph. A 3hr drive there was a 5hr drive back

Here's some photos we took on the way home, I was chuffed to bits and the BMW was doing epic MPG at those speeds haha.




Fortunately the new job is at a motor factors so parts are very reasonably priced. Once home I bought a race rad, new thermostat and water pump and new ignition parts to make sure I could reliably get to work.

He was given his name the same day too. My sister was also born in 1989 so I asked her to name him and that's where Goofy came from.
She was quite ill at the time and didn't even remember that she'd done this

New tyres and spigot ring arrived and I got them fitted and gave the interior a clean. Had to take it for a run out to Carsington water of course.





The interior is really nice apart from the seats are a bit worse for wear, I'll have to replace them at some point as the foam is crumbling and ending up on the floor underneath.

Next on the to do list is some fresh discs and pads and new front wheel bearings as we were getting quite the grinding noise coming from that direction.
The discs were shot, the pads were OK and the wheel bearings were fubar!
My little helper decided he wanted to do a side too. You couldn't get this dog away from the cars. A proper petrol head.



A little lesson in how to park efficiently next to my mums. Usually you get 2 cars on here but about 4 metros would fit, 5 if you got rid of the bus stop



A nice parcel got delivered to my work recently too...



Can you guess?

4 diddy little 12" wheels in there just dying for some Mel paintwork... This started 10 years ago with the wheels of my mk3 supra



And the finished product





I love splashing paint on stuff, I think it looks ace, I did the same to my bike last year too, oh and my roller skate plates haha





Gotta love it.... Or hate it, its not everyone's cup of tea.

Anyway, I can't actually fit the wheels yet, I bought mini ones, the only way I could get white. But that means the centre bore is too small so I need to get rid of the lugs that help you centre the wheel when fitting. Minis don't actually have these at all so we should be all good when I have time to get it done.

Goofy's first "fail to proceed"

He had started with a cold miss fire which was getting worse so I changed the points and condenser which I hadn't bothered to do at the start and we thought he was fixed.... However, 2 weeks in this happened on my way to work, very sudden heavy miss fire and he couldn't pull himself up this hill. Plugs black as soot.



Having checked all our work we couldn't find anything else wrong, so seeing as the symptoms smacked of failed condenser, even though it was brand new, a Google suggested they are pretty unreliable. I bought another condenser and the symptoms still didn't change but we still couldn't find an issue.
To rule it out completely I bought an electronic replacement for the points and condenser from power spark and that sorted him right out..

A couple of weeks on again and we still seem to be having misfiring issues.
As is typical on old cars quite often a symptom is cause by more than one problem. After messing with the mixture and plugs for the last few weeks I've notice each time I get a miss plug 3 is sooting up and it's getting worse.

I highly suspect the valve stem oils seals now. He has needed them from the start, according to the little puff of blue smoke on start up, so I think the leak has got worse over cylinder 3 and it's oiling the plug up.

For now I'll just keep spare plugs in the car and clean it up everytime it starts to miss, as big plans are afoot!

We are now up to date finally.

So future plans are as follows; I want to make him a bit faster and a a bit longer legged on the motorway. He is my only car after all.

The plan was to pull the engine, get rid of all the leaks (of which there are many from every orifice) chuck it back in and slap a turbo on it.
I have already bought a lovely T2 from a Renault 5 turbo and the higher final drive.

Then a nice 1275 with 33k on the clock popped up on ebay which seemed like the perfect solution! 2 engines means I can run the 1275 whilst I build my perfect 998. I can take my time doing it exactly as I want it and in the mean time the 1275 is more than double the horsepower win win.

Engine collection day is tomorrow so I will take lots of pics for a good update. It's 3hrs 45 away at the seaside so fish and chips will be happening too. Yay.

A collection of parts have come during the week for the engine refresh. I'm really looking forward to the extra horsepower now



First it needed a good clean though, a whole can of foam gunk is applied and I attacked it with the pressure washer.



Back in the garage looking much nicer now.



I've taken off the clutch, which actually looked pretty new anyway but we're there now so it'll get changed still.
And then the head comes off, I want to change the valve stem seals as I don't need them leaking later. One of the head studs was a bit stuck and we have a damaged exhaust stud I need to change too but otherwise its all looking really nice.



The engine turns really nicely and there is no play in the piston rings at all, a testament to its 33,000 miles.



I stopped for the day as it has been really cold, windy and rainy and we couldn't keep the garage door shut. The wind wanted it open to chuck the rain in

I'll be doing bits in the evenings though so it should progress pretty quickly.

That's a bit different to a jag, from one extreme to the other! Looks solid though

Wow that lacquer peel looks like something you'd find out here in Aus. Love the pic out at Monsal. Making me homesick.

Great little car about to get greater with the 1275.

Have you got the new rims on yet?

My first two cars were metros, real soft spot for them. Love the work you’ve done